HOPE FOR THE UNLOVED

 

This week in the women’s Bible study I’ve been teaching we will be studying the lives of Leah and Rachel, sister wives of the patriarch Jacob, from the account in Genesis 29 and 30.

The patriarch is working for his uncle Laban and while he works he has time to get to know the two sisters.  Rachel, the youngest, is by far the lovelier of the two daughters, and the one who has captured the attention and love of Jacob.  When Laban offers him whatever wages he chooses in return for working for him, Jacob offers to work 7 years for the privilege of marrying Rachel.

The years fly by and it is finally time for the marriage ceremony.  When evening comes, a feast is prepared and the bride is heavily veiled. When the ceremony ends, she enters the marriage tent.  When the light of day dawns, Jacob is shocked to discover that he has been deceived.  It is Leah, not Rachel, in his marriage bed.

When a furious Jacob confronts Laban, he discovers that it is not the custom of the day for the youngest girl to be married before the eldest.  But all is not lost.  If Jacob will agree to finish out Leah's bridal week, he can have Rachel as well, if he will give Laban another 7 years of labor. And Jacob agrees.

The years following are fraught with conflict, jealousy and competition between these two sisters, over the love of Jacob and the ability to produce children, no doubt making Jacob’s life extremely miserable! 

When I read the passage again this week, my heart went out to Leah.  Although she longed for it, the love of her husband Jacob would always belong to Rachel.  And it would never be any different for all the long years these two sisters would inhabit the same household.

This morning in my quiet time I read Psalm 55.  When I read some of David’s words, I couldn’t help but think of Leah.

“My thoughts trouble me, I am distraught.

My heart is in anguish within me.

Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!  I would fly away. . . .to a place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.

If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it, but it is YOU. . . .my companion, my close friend. . .

What must it have been like for her to be married to a man who didn’t love her, to live with a sister who was always trying to get the upper hand – when she already had the love of Leah’s husband?

Maybe YOU know what that’s like.  Maybe you have known the anguish of betrayal from a husband or close friend.  Maybe you long to fly away to some desert island where you can get away from it all – but you, like Leah – are stuck where you are.

In thinking about the lesson I will teach this week, I thought of the wonderful assurance we who know Jesus have when we face situations like this.

There will never, EVER, be a time when Jesus will do this.  He will NEVER look at us one day and say, “You’re not living up to my expectations.  I don’t love you anymore.” 

On the contrary, everything Jesus ever did was to communicate to us just how much He loves us.  There is no greater love than this, Jesus says in John’s gospel, chapter 15, verse 13, then that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus didn’t demonstrate His love for us simply by being kind, or speaking loving words, although He did both. Jesus demonstrated His love by giving His life – enduring scorn, humiliation, pain and suffering, insults, hatred - and then, at the end of the worst day possible, He endured separation from His Father as He bore our sin – willingly, for YOU and for ME - so we would NEVER have to be separated from Him.  So that we would ALWAYS know just how much He loves us.

The Apostle Paul, at the end of the chapter 8 in the book of Romans, said this: 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Do you HEAR that? 

Close friends may turn on us, husbands or wives might tell us they no longer love us, circumstances might make us want to run away, those closest to us may insult us – BUT JESUS WILL NEVER STOP LOVING US!  NEVER!  EVER!  NOTHING will EVER be able to separate us from His love!

And that is a promise upon which you can stand forever!  Take heart child of God, Jesus loves you.

 

MY SHEPHERD'S VOICE

This past weekend I went on a women’s retreat.  It was held in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a place with many happy memories for me from vacations with my husband and children.  For two days I enjoyed good food, a wonderful speaker, sweet fellowship with my sisters in Christ, seeing the ocean from my hotel room, and all of the special delights of a beach town.

On Saturday afternoon during our free time my friend and I went back to our hotel room and spent some time talking.  I was talking about my recent experience donating a kidney to my friend from church and how I knew that it was the Lord leading me to take the first step of being tested.  My friend asked, “But how did you KNOW it was GOD telling you to do it?”  The question took me aback a bit because I had never given it any thought.  And then I said, “I knew it was God because I recognized the sound of His “voice”. 

Now if you are not a believer in Jesus, or you have not known Him by faith for very long, this might sound weird, so let me clear something up right at the outset.  I did NOT hear an audible voice.  There were times in the Bible when God spoke and His voice may have been audible, like when He called out to the boy Samuel in I Samuel, chapter 3, or when He met Moses at the burning bush.

But now that we have the written word of God in the Bible, God doesn’t need to speak in an audible voice.  He speaks through His Word, through the prompting of His Holy Spirit who indwells believers in Jesus, and sometimes He speaks through circumstances and the godly counsel of other believers.  So, I didn’t hear an audible voice, but nevertheless, I knew that it was the Lord who laid it on my heart that I should pursue the testing to see if I was a match for my friend.

After that conversation, I began to think about how I came to know my Lord’s voice, and I realized that like all relationships, the better you get to know someone, the more easily you recognize his voice. 

When I was first married I was living and working in New Jersey while my husband was serving in the Army in Viet Nam.  Mostly we corresponded by letter but every now and then I would be awakened during the night with a phone call.  The call was picked up and forwarded to me by a MARS ham radio operator.  Though my husband and I had been separated by time and miles, and there was always another operator on the line reminding each of us to say, “over” when we had finished speaking, I still immediately knew HIS voice. 

The Lord has been speaking to me through His Word since the Holy Spirit took up residence in my heart and life the moment I first believed in Jesus.  Each time I responded with obedience, I grew to know Him better, to recognize His voice.  God’s Word has been so central to me in my walk with the Lord.

Over the nearly 35 years that I've walked with the Lord I 've read the Bible on my own, studied with devotionals, attended Sunday school classes where the Bible was taught, taught the Bible to other women and children, and studied God’s Word in depth for 18 years through the ministry of Bible Study Fellowship International – all the while getting to know the Lord and the sound of His voice. 

In addition, the Lord invited me to join Him in some faith adventures that had a huge impact on my faith in His faithfulness, so that His voice became more and more familiar to me – especially through the difficult journeys of faith.  Someone has said that God whispers to us through the quiet times in our lives, but shouts to us in our pain.  I found that was true.

The first time was in 1982.  I was a young mom with two daughters, just 2 and 4 years old, when a lump was discovered in my neck.  After some testing it was diagnosed as a tumor on my thyroid and the doctor recommended I have it out.  I had never had surgery before, so I was scared to DEATH.  In that day, they didn’t do biopsies before the surgery, they did them while you were still on the operating table.  That way, if the tumor was cancerous, they could go ahead and do more drastic surgery while you were still under anesthesia. 

So I went into the hospital not knowing what the outcome of the surgery would be – and without the internet to check for myself – I had no idea of the possibilities either, which was a good thing! 

Looking ahead to the surgery I was not only thinking about myself, I was thinking about my husband and my little girls, wondering what would happen to us all if it turned out to be a cancerous tumor.  FEAR was my default, but by God’s grace, I didn’t STAY afraid.  Instead my hospital room felt like a sanctuary.  I read my Bible and prayed and I knew the Lord was right there with me. I was “hearing” the sound of His voice bringing to me His comfort and peace.

When it was time to go to the OR, I was wheeled there by a man I had never seen before.  On the elevator he chatted with someone while I hummed a hymn, but when he left me in the hallway outside the OR, he leaned over and said in my ear, “You are in good hands with the Lord”.  Wow!  That was exactly the assurance I needed!  I never saw that man again.  His was a human voice I “heard” speaking to me, but I knew it was the Lord who inspired the words. 

Many other faith adventures followed:  more surgeries, one cancer diagnosis, difficulty raising a child, ministry opportunities that took me WAY outside my comfort zone, moving to a new place at the same time all my close relatives moved far away – all of these things grew my faith and made me more attuned to my Lord’s “voice”. 

I remember saying after that first surgery when my girls were so young – I’d gladly go through another experience like this anytime if it causes me to experience the reality of the Lord the way this did.  And the Lord has taken me at my word!

In chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, when Jesus spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd, He said this:

“The sheep listen to (the Shepherd’s) voice.  He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know his voice.  I am the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep”

 If you want to hear the Shepherd’s voice you really have to get to know the Shepherd.

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW

Many years ago now a movie was released entitled, “March of the Penguins”.  It was a beautifully done documentary on the breeding habits of the Emperor Penguin.  I remember being completely amazed at the details of the incredible hardships these beautiful birds faced in order to bring their little ones into being and then protect them while they grew.

Contrary to the habits of many other animals who breed and raise their young in the spring, the Emperor Penguins migrate to the same place every year, to bring forth their young in the winter, in the vast emptiness of Antarctica.  After the females lay their eggs they depart, traveling an incredible distance to find food, while the males protect the eggs, and later the chicks, in a special pouch under their wings. 

When the winter winds blow and the temperatures fall, the males form a huge huddle and then rotate their positions so that everyone has a turn in the center and at the outer rim, where they are more exposed to the elements.

Finally the females, in a long single line, “somehow” find their way back just in time to feed their now hungry chicks.

At the time that this movie was released I happened to be teaching women about the creation story from the early chapters of the book of Genesis in the Bible and the story of the Emperor Penguins became the perfect illustration of the majesty of God in creation.

Currently, my husband and I are watching a series on public television entitled: “Earthflight”, which chronicles the migratory behavior of birds from every continent around the world.  And once again I am in awe. 

It would seem that the videographers mounted a small camera on one member of each species of bird, because the filming is literally a “bird’s eye view” of their respective journeys. 

We SEE the terrain viewed by the birds as they travel over fields, and seas, and mountains.  We SEE the weather patterns of fog, and rain, and snow through which they travel to reach their destinations.  We SEE the predators from which they flee to avoid becoming “lunch”.  We SEE them building nests and tending to their young.  It’s amazing.

When I SEE all of this myself – what I SEE is the awesomeness of the God who created them all and programmed them to know exactly when the time for mating is near, and Who directs them where to go when the time is right.  By the inner prompting with which He equipped them, they leave where they are and travel sometimes thousands of miles, facing numerous obstacles, to reach a very specific destination where they breed and raise their chicks. 

I don’t for a single moment believe this kind of behavior is evolutionary, or that it happened by chance.  Seriously, what are the chances???

No, I believe these magnificent birds and the behavior they exhibit reveals the power and creative genius of the One who made all things and then pronounced them, good.

I agree with the Apostle Paul when he says in Romans 1:20:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

So what do YOU SEE when you view the intricacies and beauty of the world around you?  A world brought into being by random chance, or a world created by THE Supreme Being, who’s creation reflects His glory?

SUFFERING: A BATTLE SCAR OF LOYALTY?

Have you ever felt as if God had abandoned you?  Maybe you feel that way now.  You’ve walked with Him and served Him with all of your heart, yet things are going on in your life that you can’t fathom and you find yourself asking: “What is going on Lord?  Where are you?”  It feels a lot like punishment, but is it?

That’s exactly the spot in which the nation of Israel found itself when the sons of Korah penned Psalm 44. 

The psalmist begins by speaking of the ways in which the Lord had blessed Israel in days past.

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what you did in their days long ago.  With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers (in the promised land); you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.  It was not by their sword that they won the land. . . it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face for you loved them. . . . . in God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.”

The Lord had done amazing things to enable Israel to settle in the land of promise - delivering them from Egypt, bringing them to the brink of the land and defeating their enemies so that they could occupy it.  It was His battle, not theirs, and for that they boasted, not in their own strength or military genius, but in His faithfulness and strength on their behalf.

Maybe you have been looking back on your own life, recounting all the ways in which the Lord has blessed you in your past.  If you haven't, make a list of all His past blessings right now.  Thank and praise Him for them, as the writer of psalm 44 did.

Like the psalmist, all of these blessings might just cause you to wonder even more about the suffering you're encountering in the present.

In Israel's present the psalmist saw no evidence of His  continued favor either.  In verses 9-16 he laments:

But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our enemies

You made us retreat; our adversaries plundered us

You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and scattered us among the nations

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors

My face is covered with shame at the taunts of the enemy, bent on revenge

Why did all of this happen?  There were plenty of times in Israel’s history when the Lord did discipline them as a father the son he loves, because of sin and idolatry, but such was not the case this time.  The psalmist says:

All this happened to us:

·         Though we had not forgotten you

·         or practiced idolatry

·         our hearts had not turned back and our feet not strayed from your path

If we had forgotten the name of our God, or worshiped a foreign god, God who knows the secrets of the heart, would surely have discovered it.

Maybe this is exactly what YOU have been saying as you’ve examined your heart in the light of what seems like God’s abandonment. 

Perhaps your argument sounds like theirs:

Lord, where are you?  Have you rejected me?  I feel alone before enemies who seemed determined to destroy me.  I feel as if you've abandoned me here while other people reproach and taunt me.

Lord, I love you!  I’ve been as faithful to you as I know how.  I don’t understand what’s going on.  If I had lived my life as if you didn’t exist, or if I had given up worship of you in favor of some other “god” of my own making, if my feet had been wandering down a path that takes me far from you – maybe then I could understand.  But I have done none of those things.  I have been faithful to you.  So why is this happening?

Verse 22 of Psalm 44 is perhaps the key to answering the questions of your heart.  It reads:

“Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

My NIV Life Application Bible says this in the footnote for these verses:

“Although (the psalmist) felt his suffering was undeserved, he revealed the real reason for it; he suffered because he was committed to the Lord. (The Apostle) Paul quoted the psalmist’s complaint to show that we must always be ready to face death for the cause of Christ.  Thus, our suffering may not be a punishment, but a battle scar that demonstrates our loyalty.”

What a comfort, what an honor, to be counted worthy to suffer because of our identification with Christ. 

If you are suffering in a way that seems unjust, though you have been as faithful to the Lord as you know how, consider that your suffering is not a punishment, but a battle scar that comes AS A RESULT OF your commitment to the Lord, a battle scar that demonstrates your loyalty to Jesus – and rejoice that you have been counted worthy to suffer for His Name.

TWO MINUTES OF FAME AND 50 YEARS OF SEPARATION

Three weeks ago yesterday I donated a kidney to my dear church friend Jennifer.  We are both a bit impatient with what seems to us the slowness of our recovery, but we’re getting there. 

The day before the transplant on August 14, Jennifer was contacted by the public relations person at the hospital to ask if she had permission to contact the media with our story.  Jennifer and I talked about it.  More than anything we wanted God to be glorified in all that had and would happen through our experience, so we agreed to allow her to do that.  Interestingly enough, none of her efforts went anywhere.  We had some initial contacts, but other things got in the way and none of the media contacted us again. We didn't know why that happened, but were okay with it since the Lord  had already shown us He was in control of all things, including this.  But that wasn’t the end of it.

As it happens, another church friend, Chris, works in the media and so she “pitched” our story for us and in the end we were contacted by a cable TV station here in New Jersey and by one of the major news stations, CBS news, channel 2, out of New York City.  Jennifer and I were only just home from the hospital when they each arranged interview time at Jennifer’s apartment. 

We were so delighted to be able to tell our story and to talk freely about how the Lord had led us, encouraged and answered our prayers, and enabled us to face serious surgery with peace and excitement instead of fear and anxiety.  Since our connection was related to our membership in the same church, each of the news stations showed a clip of our church and mentioned its name.  Our pastor was even interviewed!

Jennifer and I took the next step of posting the news media links on Facebook so that friends and family living across the country could view the videos as well.  The interviews, which took an hour to do, and 2 minutes to air, were shown repeatedly during the daily news broadcasts over the next day or so.  We received all kinds of comments about our “2 minutes of fame”, and it was fun, and we hoped, God glorifying.

Within a week I had a call from our church secretary.  A woman I’d gone to high school with 48 years ago, saw one of the interviews on TV and wanted to get in touch.  I called her, and that call led to a wonderful reunion yesterday at a local restaurant, and what a reunion it was!

My greatest delight was that this friend was very anxious to hear about my walk of faith.  She didn’t remember me as a particularly religious person back in high school and wanted to know how I got to be the person of faith I am now.

This is the kind of conversation, initiated by someone else, that we Christians long to have with others, but they are so rare.  I can remember having only one other. Many years ago now, I was working closely with a young man and during that time was having a serious and very scary family issue and he knew it.  He often asked me about it and I could tell he was concerned. 

We talked a bit about God in relation to all of that, but it was when I was preparing to leave the job and he had invited me to dinner that the conversation became more focused.  At some point during dinner he turned to me and said, “I have only met 3 people in my life who were passionate about God and you are one of them.  I want to know why.”  I was blown away by this wonderful opportunity to talk freely about Jesus, and I did.  Just a year or so later, both this young man and his soon to be wife became believers in Jesus themselves through the discipling ministry of our pastor.

So yesterday, when my friend asked about my faith, I was able to tell her that I actually WAS religious back in high school in that my family attended church and took our involvement seriously, but  it was only after I came to know Jesus that I began the journey of faith I have now.

Being religious is different from being a person of faith in Jesus.  Being religious usually involves doing religious things, like going to church and participating in our church's sacraments, but it's possible to do all of that, and miss knowing Jesus Himself.

Being part of a church, attending church, taking part in communion, serving others is all important – but of FIRST importance is a relationship with Jesus.  So I was “religious” in those days, but I did not know Jesus. My friend asked how I came to this faith and I explained that it is the work of God.  He does the drawing, He creates the longing for Himself in the heart.  I believe He is at work doing exactly that in the heart of my friend, creating a longing that will only be fulfilled when Jesus occupies His place in her heart.

I’m still recovering from surgery so I haven’t gone a day without an afternoon nap, but yesterday, sleep was impossible.  I was too busy rejoicing over the awesomeness of God to use a 2 minute interview to renew a friendship that allowed me to talk about Jesus, and for what He is up to in the life of my friend. 

I’m so grateful for my God, who is sovereign over TV interviews and 50 year separations. 

Who but YOU, Lord??

YOUR TESTIMONY - AMAZING OR ORDINARY?

One of the outreach ministries of our church is the senior’s ministry.  Each month we have a luncheon for the senior members of our church and community at a nominal cost.  Each luncheon includes a short spiritual devotional message as well as a special speaker who addresses different topics of interest to seniors.

Back in the spring I was asked if I would be one of a few who would share my testimony at the September meeting.  In Christian circles when you are asked to share your testimony it’s understood that you will share how you came to faith in Jesus. 

I’ve heard some really wonderful and amazing testimonies in my years as a Christian.  There are the testimonies of prominent people like DL Moody, David Wilkerson, and CS Lewis.  There is the testimony of the man who set out to prove that the resurrection of Jesus was a myth, only to reach the end of that journey with a complete change of heart and a deep faith in the One whose resurrection he first rejected.  There are the testimonies of the drug addicts, prostitutes, and criminals, whose lives were dramatically changed when they came face to face with Jesus. 

Then there is my testimony.  It couldn’t be more ordinary. 

We weren’t a consistent church going family as I was growing up, so when it came to exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ, I didn’t have a consistent spiritual influence.  My earliest recollection of church was when I’d stayed overnight at an aunts and she took me to Sunday school around the holidays.  Boxes of hard candies were given out and there wasn’t one for me, but thankfully that didn’t have a particularly negative influence. 

When I was in the first and second grade there was a Baptist church on our block.  I remember my mom getting me up to go to Sunday school but I don’t remember my parents going along.  I remember learning to sing “Silent Night” in German for a Christmas program and attending Pioneer Girls (sort of a Christian based Girl Scout group) with my mom helping out.  My fondest memory was of Vacation Bible School and being taught Bible stories on a flannel graph (if you’re familiar with this then you’ll know I must be ancient!).

When we moved to another apartment in the same city I decided that I didn’t just want to go to church because my parents sent me.  I wanted to go to church because God was there.  So began a quest, encouraged by my dad who accompanied me, to find a church we could all attend.  We settled on a Methodist church only a few blocks away, pastored by a wonderful young man who loved Jesus so much that just speaking of Him in a sermon would move him to tears.  His passion struck a chord and we began attending.  We stayed there for some time.  While I loved going to church (and youth group by that time as well), and I loved the pastor’s passion for Jesus, I had no such passion myself.  Church was very much a feel good experience, comfortable, accepting.

More moves, more churches, until I reached the end of my college years.  I sat under the preaching of a godly pastor and his wife, taught Sunday school and sang in the choir, but somehow I still didn’t know Jesus.  I didn’t even know that I didn’t know!  Then, once I married, Jim and I spent years not going to church at all until the Lord began to work in me.

So many people can trace back to THE day when the light of God’s truth dawned.  It was not like that for me.  The only way I could describe it is that God drew me, gently, slowly, with chords of love. Over some time He created a desire to know Him in my heart.  He used the gospel preaching of a radio pastor I listened to on my way to work to help me SEE the truth for the first time and then He opened my previously closed mind to my need for Jesus.  And over time my love for Jesus grew and the entire direction of my life was changed.

I feel a bit weird sharing this testimony.  It doesn’t fit the “pattern” of having a moment when I realized I was a sinner, repented then and there, and was saved, and it isn’t spectacular.  I wasn’t freed from drug abuse or healed of a deadly disease.  No, compared to that kind of testimony, mine is thoroughly ordinary, and yet is it really?

There really is no such thing as an “ordinary” testimony.  Every story of how the Lord changes those about whom He says:

·        “There is NO ONE righteous, no not one”

·        “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”

·        “All our good deeds are as filthy rags”

is thoroughly AMAZING, and a testimony, not to the worthiness of the person changed, but to the depth of God’s love for those so mired in their own self-centeredness and sin that they cannot help themselves.

It’s amazing because God knows how trapped we really are in our desire to do our own thing and leave Him out!  Only He knows how helpless we are to help ourselves, to say no to sin, to live a life of loving Him and loving others.  Without Him we have no power, no desire to live any differently.  And yet, amazingly:

God does the seeking of those undeserving of His love.

God does the work – of satisfying His wrath against sin – by paying the penalty – death – Himself through the death of His Son on the cross.

Then God opens the heart to believe by His grace through faith in Jesus, and transforms the sinner from someone who could not NOT sin into someone who can say NO to sin. 

Sin’s penalty paid, sin’s power broken, eternal life beginning in the here and now.  A life made new, a life transformed – a testimony of God’s amazing grace.

Despite what our lives looked like before Jesus saved us, whether He saved us miraculously and seemingly instantaneously, or quietly and gradually, every single testimony is amazing because it is complete and final, and not a one of us did a thing to merit it. 

God saves.  God saves through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, by His grace and through faith because of His great love.  God does FOR us what we could never do for ourselves.  And that IS amazing, every time, in every way, with every person!

So don’t let a seemingly ordinary testimony keep you from celebrating the most amazing thing that has ever, or will ever, happen to you. 

Every testimony is a testimony of God’s amazing grace.

POST TRANSPLANT REFLECTIONS

If you’ve been following my blog posts then you know that almost two weeks ago now I donated a kidney to a friend from church.  I’ve wanted to write some follow ups but just haven’t had the physical or mental energy. Despite my sometimes flagging energy, I can’t believe that I feel so good so soon after major surgery. 

Jennifer, my kidney recipient, has received glowing reports about her health. The doctor told her her recovery has been remarkable!  We are SO thankful that the Lord continues to be faithful and answer prayer.  If you are one who has been praying for us, then thank you so much and may the Lord bless you abundantly!

One of the things I did do this week was attend worship at church.  Wow, what a welcome home I received!  Not long ago I wrote a blog about the beauty of the Body of Christ. Jennifer and I have had a front row seat on the receiving end of their love.

Jennifer and I had been the recipients of the love of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ long before the transplant, but since the surgery they've swung into high gear.  They have certainly prayed for us, but they also ran to the airport to collect family members.  They have made and delivered delicious meals, fit for royalty, and in abundant supply.  They have sent cards and brought flowers.  They have visited.  They have stayed overnight to see to Jennifer’s needs. One of them in the media industry even put us in touch with TV news so that Jennifer and I could get God’s story “out there”.  Our church family has loved us with the love of Jesus in every way.  They are an awesome, living demonstration of the way the unity of the Body of Christ is supposed to be lived out.

But the true Star of our faith experience has been the Lord Himself.  In this week  of enthusiasm dampened by discomfort and weariness, of disrupted sleep and a foggy brain, I’ve just been resting in His nearness and the comfort of His presence.  Being in church yesterday, singing the praises of Jesus, lifted my spirit to remember Who IS all, and above all, and I worshiped:

God who is sovereign.  Sovereign over 66 year old kidneys that looked and worked like 35 year olds! Who knew???  I certainly hadn’t done a single thing to whip those kidneys into good physical shape!

Sovereign over diseased kidneys that didn’t give out until a donor was in place.

Sovereign over the lives of two people – one who need a kidney and another who “happened” to be in the same church and could part with one.

God is sovereign over events, and time, and place, and people.  He would be sovereign whether or not we ever “saw” or acknowledged His sovereignty, but when He gives us a glimpse of it, we are awestruck!

God who is faithful.  Faithful to hear and answer the prayer of His servants.  Jennifer and I have not been carried through these months, and especially these last 2 weeks, because people have been faithful to pray.  People HAVE been faithful to pray, but we were carried through because God is faithful to answer.

He faithfully answered prayer.  He faithfully met us at every single point of need – whether spiritual, emotional or physical.  He faithfully provided through His people, so that we could rest, have rides, have someone to change bandages, guard our rest, see to it that we and our families were fed. 

God who is the Prince of Peace.  The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, in chapter 9, the passage we have all heard around Christmas time, describes the Messiah as, among other things, the “Prince of Peace”.  Jesus says, “My peace I give to you”.

In Philippians 4:6-7 the Apostle Paul says:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Our God, who is faithful, proved the reality of Paul’s words in Jennifer’s heart and mine these last few weeks.  He was our peace when we were both facing surgery.  His peace defied human understanding.  We enjoyed peace when fear would have been the human and logical response.  His peace guarded our hearts and minds keeping us focused on Jesus.

The perfect illustration of that was on the day of surgery when two emergency transplants during the night pushed our surgery from 1:30 to 5:30 PM.  Instead of worrying or entertaining second thoughts, we visited and joked and loved on one another and our families.  The pre-op time was filled with joyful anticipation.

It has occurred to me that some of you reading these blogs might be thinking –Why would I want to follow Jesus if He asks people to do things like donate kidneys? 

Well, calm down. The truth is the vast majority of Christians have never been given the opportunity to donate a kidney!  But following Jesus IS a commitment – a commitment of a life, a commitment of a lifetime.  A commitment to a Savior and Master.  A commitment to follow where He leads wherever that is, and surprise of surprises, finding that when you do, there is joy, and peace, and a deep sense of satisfaction, and a knowledge of Jesus - not just in your head, but in your experience - that makes Him REAL!

Dear friend, never be afraid of joining your life to that of Jesus.  There is no other life worth living.